11 arrested for desecrating Auschwitz

Polish police detain 11 men and women who slaughtered a sheep and took their clothes off at Auschwitz.

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Ben Ariel, Canada, 24/03/17 20:51

Auschwitz entrance

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11 men and women in their twenties were detained by Polish police on Friday, after they slaughtered a sheep and took their clothes off at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The individuals aged 20 to 27, whose identities and motives are unknown, then chained themselves together in front of the camp's infamous "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free") gate, the museum said in a statement quoted by AFP.

Local media said the 14 draped a white banner with the red text "love" over the infamous gate. They also used a drone to film the incident.

Museum guards at the site immediately intervened, and police said all those involved have been detained. They include Poles and foreigners.

"The individuals have been transferred to a police station for questioning. A large group of police officers are at the scene," local police spokeswoman Malgorzata Jurecka told AFP.

She noted that police plan to inform prosecutors of the incident, adding that the people involved "will likely be charged with desecrating a monument or other historical site".

"We're shocked and outraged by this attempt to use this memorial site for a protest and which mars the memory of thousands of victims. It's a reprehensible act," museum spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel told AFP.

"This is the first time something like this has happened at Auschwitz," added museum director Piotr Cywinski. "I have no idea what their motives were.”

Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, told AFP that the actions of those involved were wrong, regardless of the group's motives.

"Any use of Auschwitz for political statements, even using Auschwitz for moral statements, is not how Auschwitz should be remembered," he said.

"The Germans used Auschwitz to try to eliminate the Jewish people. Any happenings are a desecration of the memory of all those killed at Auschwitz, Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and others," added Rabbi Schudrich.